Evening Star - Finished!

Evening Star is finished and blocked. Here are some photos. I didn't dress up for the occasion:






Stats: Pattern: Star of Evening Triangle, by Anne Hanson. Yarn: Lanas Puras Melosa Laceweight in Midnight, one skein. This was a remarkably easy lace pattern. I'm not sure that I love the top edging, because the points aren't as spread out as the points on the bottom diagonals, but I think it's not something people will notice when it's being worn.

Now that this is done, I have time to work on some other things. I picked up the Thelonious sock that I had put down a while back to concentrate on the shawl. I got quite a way into the calf pattern, as you can see here:


Today, I cast on for the Gathered Pullover, tried very carefully NOT to twist the stitches when joining them into a round, then proceeded to do just that, TWICE. Then, when I unwound all that I had done, I created a huge knotted mess. Yay me. I've figured out a way to avoid the twist -- use two circulars instead of one, then switch back to one -- so I'll do that tonight. I've decided to use the Jo Sharp yarn, and I'm making the sweater a bit A-liney, I think. It will be snugger around the bust, then flare out a little toward the hips. I may, however, change my mind about that, probably once I've knit 12 inches or so.

Cranky Monkey Mountain Bike Races

Mr. T and Sr. Jr. competed in this week's segment of the Cranky Monkey mountain bike racing series. Sr. Jr. came in second in his age group! Mr. T, however, crashed about 5 minutes from the end, knocking his head and coming up with a few nasty scrapes and bruises. Luckily, there was no concussion, no bones were broken, but the bike was damaged a bit.

Political Nonsense

For the first time in a long time, the state of Virginia has become a battleground state in a Presidential election. For many years, Virginia could be counted on to vote for Republican candidates, so neither party spent much money here during the races. Over the past few years, however, the political climate in Virginia has begun to change, with more and more Democratic candidates winning office, both in formerly Republican districts and statewide. During the primaries, Obama brought in more votes that McCain by a large margin. Overall, almost twice as many votes were cast in the Democratic primary in Virginia than in the Republican primary, and this was before McCain had wrapped up the nomination.

I'm glad to see candidates focussing on us for once. I think Virginia is definitely in play. The plus side here is that we get a lot more attention from the candidates, which is also, amusingly, the down side.

McCain is running an ad here in Virginia (don't know where else it is playing) blaming the rise in gas prices on.... yep, you got it... Barack Obama. The ad conveniently glosses over Iraq, Katrina, tensions with Iran, the falling dollar, et al., and focusses solely on offshore drilling. It's really quite funny. Yup, Mr. McCain, gas prices have been rising steadily for years, long before the 2008 Presidential elections began (and THAT was a long time ago), long before Obama started campaigning.

And because I haven't posted a cute cat picture lately: